Abstract
This study examines the discursive construction of religion in Swedish newspaper articles on funerals during the covid-19 pandemic. Thirty articles from the six most prominent newspapers were analyzed using Multimodal cda and intersectionality. Most articles deal with religion as an institution, followed by religion as a group and individual religiosity. Religion is constructed in intersection with ethnicity and gender. The CoS is privileged, portraying Lutheran Christians as professionals. Minority religions are positioned as ‘the other’, something ‘problematic’ or ‘different’ from ‘Swedish (secular) values’ and ways of living. Migrant men and women are portrayed stereotypically. However, alternative narratives are told by well-educated and influential representatives of different minority religions, giving these religions a ‘voice’. I argue that increased religious literacy is needed among media workers if the reporting should be based on equality within and between the power categories of gender, ethnicity, and religion.
Introduction
Funerals are not a common topic in Swedish newspapers, but with the covid-19 pandemic and the resulting loss of numerous Swedish lives, funerals became the subject of many articles, often with a religious element (Jarnkvist, 2023). This study examines the discursive construction of religion in funeral articles in Swedish newspapers during the covid-19 pandemic. It asks: Which aspects of religion are highlighted in the articles? Which norms and values are evident? How does religion intersect with other power structures in the analyzed material? During times of crisis, such as the coronavirus pandemic, societal values and norms are often brought to the forefront, making it essential to analyze media depictions of religion during this period (c.f. Reimers, 2003).
The paper uses multimodal critical discourse analysis (cda) (Jancsary et al., 2015) to analyze written texts and photos in the articles. Critical reflections enable an understanding of how norms surrounding death practices may impact religious groups and their rituals. The study takes an intersectional perspective, clarifying how social structures interact in individual lives, practices, and institutional arrangements and what the interactions lead to regarding power (Brah & Phoenix, 2004). Previous research on religion in news media has revealed that social categories, such as gender and ethnicity, are made through and affect people’s understanding of and approach to religion (Lövheim, 2021; Mitchell & Afshari, 2021; Taira, 2019). However, social stratifications are often studied as single categories, and intersectional approaches are rare. The intersectional perspective may uncover hidden power structures and bring unequal relations to light. That is important for making society’s practices regarding death and bereavement more equal. In this study, the intersection of religion, ethnicity, and gender is focused on, as these are the most prominent power structures revealed in the analyzed material.
The paper is structured as follows: I give a short overview of the empirical context, then an overview of previous research and the study’s theoretical point of departure. The result and analysis are presented after a description of the material and method used in the study. Finally, I discuss the findings.
Empirical Context
For centuries, the Church of Sweden (CoS) has been the dominant religious institution in Sweden, conducting almost all funerals due to its history as a state church. However, since 2000, the CoS is no longer a state church, resulting in declining members and funerals within the community. Migration has also affected the religious landscape, with 20 percent of the population being foreign-born, mostly from Arabic countries (scb, 2022). As of 2022, 53 percent of all Swedes were members of the CoS, and 66 percent of all deceased had a funeral within the community (The Church of Sweden, 2023), while the rest had ceremonies conducted by other religious communities, civil funerals, or were buried without registered funerals, so-called direct cremation. The CoS is still responsible for the cremation and burial of all deceased, except in two cities where the municipalities take care of it (The Church of Sweden Employers’ Association, 2016). Only members of the CoS receive a funeral service within the community.
Due to the covid-19 pandemic, social restrictions impacted funeral practices in several ways that aligned with recommendations from the Public Health Authority. While most countries implemented strict measures, Sweden had a more lenient approach, allowing mourners to participate in funerals physically. However, the regulations surrounding funerals changed over time due to fluctuations in death rates. For instance, in April 2020, up to 50 people were allowed to attend funerals, whereas in December 2020, the number was limited to 20. Restrictions were eased during the summer of 2021, and as of February 2022, there are no restrictions on funerals in Sweden (Sweden’s Funeral Directors’ Association, 2023).
Previous Studies
Previous research on religion in news media reveals that religion is covered in newspapers during extraordinary events (Taira, 2019), such as a pandemic. The CoS has long had a central role in national crises in Sweden, and priests and bishops are often interviewed in newspapers as ‘experts’ on death and bereavement, also when there are local crises (Lövheim, 2019).
However, religion is seldom mentioned in media studies focusing on the covid-19 pandemic, even though a few examples exist (Halafoff et al., 2021; Selman et al., 2021). A survey of death and bereavement in the UK recognizes that even though the pandemic affected everyone, newspapers in Britain focused explicitly on Christian or ‘secular’ death rituals. At the same time, other traditions were only mentioned in a global context (Selman et al., 2021). In Australia, Muslim, Jewish, and some ethnic Christian religious minorities got negative media attention and were accused of deviating from covid-19 restrictions (Halafoff et al., 2021). In Sweden, religion has been identified as one of several prominent power structures intersecting in the articulation of ‘funeral’ in newspaper articles (Jarnkvist, 2023). The analyzed articles presented an ideal of ‘the responsible mourner,’ a ‘rational’ woman who follows the funeral restrictions and arranges a funeral in the CoS shortly after the death of a relative. The ‘good funeral’ is portrayed as a funeral with physically present mourners performed according to the deceased’s will and in honor of the dead.
Regarding religion in news media in general, research shows that the Nordic newspapers mainly write about religion as an institution or collective, even though religion is conceived as an individual choice in Nordic societies (Taira, 2019). In Sweden, articles on religion’s public role in society are five times more common than articles on personal faith (Lövheim, 2019). At the start of the 21st century, Sweden was distinct from the other Nordic countries in terms of being more secular, having a weaker connection between religion and national identity, and having a higher tolerance towards immigration and religious diversity (Furseth, 2018).
However, a study by Lövheim (2019) indicates that this image has changed. Newspaper articles often have religious diversity as a point of departure, indicating an awareness of religious diversity in the daily press.
Nevertheless, the question of tolerance is more ambiguous. It seems that newspapers exhibit a “conditioned tolerance” (Axner, 2013) towards religious diversity, particularly regarding Islam. Newspapers often highlight problematic regulations and practices associated with Islam more than Christianity (Lövheim, 2019).
In previous studies on the representation of gender and religion in Western newspapers, three salient themes have been found: the underrepresentation of women, stereotypical representations of men and women, and representations that repeat asymmetrical relations between men and women (Lövheim, 2021). Studies have found that men dominate European newspapers’ reporting on religion, especially in articles about Islam, Catholicism, and Judaism. Conflicts, economic consequences, and the attribution of responsibility are standard frames of such articles. The articles are often constructed as narratives in which actors are assigned oppositional roles, such as perpetrators or victims (Figenschou et al, 2015).
Studies on the intersection of gender and religion in Western media mainly focus on the representation of Muslim men and women. Research has found that in articles on Islam, Muslim men are often portrayed as violent perpetrators and Muslim women as mute victims of oppression needing liberation from a patriarchal and violent religion (Klaus & Kassel 2005, pp. 345, 350). However, studies of Swedish newspapers also reveal an alternative framing where Muslim women, in some cases, are positioned as agents, portrayed as ideals according to Swedish norms (Axner, 2015; Lövheim, 2021). However, Islam as a religion is still described as different from and a problem in Swedish society. In this regard, the positioning of Muslim women’s lives and identities is mixed and complex. The women are “portrayed with an agency, but also as symbols to argue for political positions concerning how to integrate religious diversity and what is perceived as core values of Swedish culture and democracy, such as secularity, gender equality, and individual self-realisation” (Lövheim, 2021, p. 71).
In Sweden, like in other Western countries, studies on Muslims have mainly focused on immigration or politics. Muslims are “portrayed with negative stereotypes, associated with violence, terrorism, oppression and as the “other” in contrast to “us”” (Axner, 2015, p. 7). According to Axner (2015), most news reports on Islam are in the foreign news section, while only a few articles are about religious practices in Sweden. Islam or Muslim is mainly used as a group marker in articles on terrorism or military action abroad. Articles on Muslims in Sweden focus more on individuals, with only one perspective present at the time.
Theoretical Framework
My starting point is that newspaper discourses are not neutral. On the contrary, they impact how religion is experienced and what is understood as normal about religion. Texts and images in news articles are regulated by cultural and institutional norms and conventions that tell the reader what is sufficient and what is not (c.f. Jancsary et al, 2015). Drawing on Taira (2019), I understand religion as a discursive formation whose boundaries change historically. This analysis focuses on groups, institutions, and practices conventionally understood as ‘religious.’
In the analysis, I use central theoretical concepts of Mediatization theory, such as ‘media logic’ and ‘framing.’ Mediatization theory studies the relationship between media and other social institutions, such as religious communities and religious groups. In a society where few people are religiously practising, such as Sweden, the media is an essential source of information and knowledge about religions (Lövheim, 2012). Media logic is a central concept in mediatization theory. It refers partly to the shared norms, values, and standards of a specific medium, such as daily national newspapers or tabloids, and the practices of framing news stories (Asp, 2014, p. 259). When framing, the journalist selects some aspects of a perceived reality and makes them more prominent to highlight, for example, a particular interpretation or moral evaluation. Frames can be identified through specific keywords, phrases, or stereotyped images that supply “thematically reinforcing clusters of facts or judgments” (Entman, 1993, pp. 51–52).
Framing is closely related to power, as the journalist may reinforce, contest, or contradict power structures by choosing different ways of framing articles. Power is also a central concept in multimodal cda, which studies how multimodal discourse is created, what it contains, and who gets to ‘speak’ by a particular mode. According to the theory, visuals often hide or ‘disguise’ power structures and hegemony as ‘objective’ representations (Jancsary et al, 2015). Power relations are similarly fundamental in looking at things and might be used as a disciplinary technique, disciplining the viewer and the viewed (Foucault, 1979). A central idea of multimodal cda is that modes represent conscious and unconscious choices made by the author that reflect her social and cultural positioning and interests (Jancsary et al, 2015).
Discourse is a central concept in cda, as well as in this study. I understand discourse as a mode of action, a way for people to act upon each other and the world, and a representation (c.f. Wodak & Meyer, 2015).
According to Fairclough (1992), discourse contributes to the construction of ‘social identities’ and ‘subject positions’ for all individuals; it is involved in the construction of social relationships between people and the construction of knowledge and belief systems (Fairclough, 1992, p. 64). A particular discursive event is shaped by, but also shaping, the situation(s), institution(s), and social structure(s) that frame it. In line with Fairclough, Mulderrig, and Wodak (1997), I understand discursive practices to have an essential ideological effect by producing and reproducing unequal power relations between, for example, ethnic/cultural majorities and minorities through how they describe things and position people (c.f. Fairclough et al, 1997, p. 258).
In the study, I use intersectionality as an analytical tool. Intersectionality stresses how differences in the intersection of power structures in people’s lives, such as religion and gender, affect people’s living conditions differently. For instance, Muslim women in Sweden are met with more scepticism in society than ‘secular’ women. According to intersectionality, social stratification is contested, negotiated, and remade by human actions, such as writing and publishing journal articles.
Representational intersectionality refers to how different groups of people are represented in stereotypical and normative ways in, for example, news media (Crenshaw, 1991). Religious literacy entails “the ability to discern and analyze the fundamental intersections of religion and social/political/cultural life through multiple lenses” (Moore, 2007, p. 56) and can be seen as a strategy for preventing stereotypical narratives in, for example, news media.
Method
The study is a follow-up to an analysis of the funeral articles in Swedish newspapers during the covid-19 pandemic, revealing religion’s significance in how ‘funeral’ was articulated in the articles (see further in Jarnkvist, 2023). Six newspapers in Sweden were selected, representing two of the most extensive morning papers (Dagens Nyheter (dn) and Svenska Dagbladet (SvD)), the two most extensive tabloid papers (Aftonbladet and Expressen), and the two most extensive regional papers (Göteborgs-Posten (gp) and Sydsvenskan). The sampling included different genres of newspaper material: opinion texts (editorials, op-eds), news articles, features, and cultural reviews. These publications’ cross-readership demographics, represent various newspaper types and genres, making complex and broad material to analyze.
In this study, the search was done in two steps. First, I utilized the news archive program Mediearkivet/Retriever when searching for relevant newspaper articles, applying the following keywords as searches: covid/corona and funeral. Articles from the mentioned newspapers were chosen. Searches were completed for a timespan covering the period when covid-19 was regarded as a pandemic (2020-03-12 – 2022-05-12). I included articles from specified news sources mentioning funerals during the covid-19 pandemic. I excluded articles discussing funerals unrelated to covid-19 or just mentioning the word ‘funeral’. The search yielded 65 relevant articles. In step two, I read all the funeral articles and chose articles focusing on groups, institutions, and practices conventionally understood as ‘religious.’ I also included articles on religious rooms, such as synagogues or chapels. However, articles that only mentioned ‘religion’ or ‘chapel,’ for example, were excluded. My search yielded 30 articles related to religion, all published during the first half of the pandemic time period, from March 2020 until September 2021. A vast majority, twenty-six out of thirty articles, were published in 2020. Fourteen articles were published in the two national newspapers and eleven in the tabloids. For a full view of the material, see Appendix 1.
Analytical Method
I used multimodal cda to analyse text and photos in newspaper articles. Discourse analysis is often used in studies on newspaper articles, but even though images play a significant role in today’s news media, they are often not examined in media analysis. Instead, the focus is primarily on texts (Jancsary et al, 2015). A narrow, critical analysis of text and photos relating to a specific issue during a particular period can uncover essential details that may have been overlooked in more overarching discourse studies on religion in news media.
Multimodality can mean very different things, and there are several ways of doing multimodal analysis. My analysis was inspired by Jancsary, Höllerer and Meyer (2015) and the five analytical steps they present. The first step is to characterize the genre, in this case, opinion texts (editorials, op-eds), news articles, features, and cultural reviews in three types of daily newspapers: national, regional, and tabloids. The second step is to capture the manifest content of the texts. Taking the first research question as a starting point, I sorted the material into three main themes, representing different aspects of religion: religion as an institution, religion as a group, and individual (non-)religiosity. In the following parts of the analysis, I explored the second and third research questions, discovering the norms and values in the material and how religion intersects with other power structures in the articles. I analysed the ‘vocabulary’ used in the articles on each theme, what rhetorical and stylist techniques were used, and the layout of the overall article. The next step is reconstructing latent elements, that is, to grasp the texts’ latent meanings. Here, I searched for what parts of social reality were featured within the text and how the hypothetical social context can be characterized in which the text ‘makes sense.’ The fourth step focuses on the effects of the ‘composition’ of photos and text in the articles. I analyzed how written text and images related to each other, the ‘functions’ of text and picture, and what dominant narratives they created. Finally, I concluded and made critical evaluations by asking what the analysis tells about broader social issues and the institutional and cultural context in which the articles are embedded, in this case, the funeral context in Sweden during the coronavirus pandemic 2020–2022.
In the following Result section, I present a comprehensive overview of the aspects of religion and the discourses found in the 30 articles under scrutiny. One could argue that the number of articles is too small to distinguish between the material. However, I intend to uncover the complexity of this small collection of material. In my presentation of the discourses revealed in the articles, the number of articles that inherit a particular discourse is not the primary focus, as multiple discourses could be exhibited in the same article. Instead, my attention is primarily drawn to the content of each discourse, highlighting the variety of norms revealed in the material. Although specific discourses may be visible in only a few articles, it is crucial to bring them to light in the analysis to uncover the material’s complexity. In discussing the results, I take a broader perspective and discuss the main findings in relation to previous studies.
Result
The analysis outlines three aspects of religion: religion as an institution, religious groups, and the (non-)religious individual. Each aspect relates to different discourses on religion, which are presented below.
Religion as an Institution
The vast majority of the analysed articles refer to religion as an institution. Four discourses represent this aspect of religion: the ‘reliable’ CoS, the CoS ‘expert’, the normative CoS funeral, and the ‘other’ funeral worker. Representatives of religious institutions (mainly the CoS) are interviewed or participate in debates. Religious institutions also include religious rooms, such as funeral chapels.
The ‘Reliable’ Church of Sweden
The CoS is primarily positioned as a reliable institution that does what is presented as best for the people. However, what is regarded as ‘the best’ shifts during the pandemic. When death rates were high, funerals were considered a risk, as it was seen as a risk of infection to attend funerals.
Early in the pandemic, the media reported people being sick after attending a big funeral. “We closed the church at the beginning of the week. We save lives,” a representative from the local congregation in the CoS said in an interview (Aftonbladet, 2020a). According to the newspaper, many people usually attend services in this church in one of the suburbs. The quotation of the spokesperson signals the experienced seriousness of the situation and that the church takes responsibility in times of crisis. The representative talks confidently, conveying that he knows what he is talking about. Closing the church is also presented in the article as the best way of handling the situation, and the CoS is framed as a reliable institution.
A few months later, during the summer of 2020, death rates were relatively low. The situation differs from the previous example when dn (2020a) made a photo feature on the daily work in a parish within the CoS in Stockholm (dn 2020a). What it is to be reliable is also understood differently. The heading quotes the female vicar: “We have promised to have [the church] open every day no matter what.” The article’s title and text portray the congregation as a steadfast community where people can come in times of crisis. The vicar says she hopes the now-cancelled baptisms and weddings will occur later when times improve. The article’s frame is that the church is acting for the best of people in times of crisis and will be there throughout the individual’s life. This is underlined by the six photos included in the article. The largest image shows the baptism of a six- month-old child; the second most prominent image is from a funeral. There are also four small images. One is of the female vicar standing in front of the church building, two exemplify song activities organized by the parish, and one is of a pair of hands wearing plastic gloves, reminding the reader of the ongoing pandemic.
During the autumn of 2020, death rates increased again. In November, the Swedish government decided that only eight persons were allowed to come together at funerals and on other occasions. Representatives from different religious congregations, with the CoS in the front, criticized the decision (Aftonbladet, 2020b). After that, the government changed the restrictions for funerals and allowed a maximum of 20 persons at funerals. In the article in Aftonbladet (2020b), the archbishop, Antje Jackelén, was positioned as a spokesperson for mourning relatives of the deceased. The language used in the article strongly appeals to people’s feelings of anger. Words like “scandal” and “unhuman” are used. As a representative of the CoS is given much space in the article, Lutheran Christianity inherits an air of empathy. It gets a position as a reliable religion. According to the media logic in the newspapers, the CoS is normative when dealing with grief, death and funerals. Another example is when dn (2020b) includes phone numbers and web addresses to ‘secular’ help organizations and to the CoS’s helpline in an article about how the restrictions cause difficulties with mourning. However, there is no contact information for other religious organizations.
The Church of Sweden ‘Expert’
Representatives of the CoS, such as priests or the archbishop, are primarily interviewed as ‘experts’ on grief and funerals. One example is an article about cremation and burial without a registered funeral, called ‘direct cremation’ in dn (2020c). The practice has increased in Sweden since 2014 and even more during the pandemic. In the article, ‘direct cremation’ is framed as a symptom of increased loneliness in Sweden. This is also emphasized in the heading, “More and more are dying and being buried alone,” and photos of undertakers preparing for a funeral in a chapel without mourners. The archbishop of the CoS is interviewed as an ‘expert’ on the ritualization of death, which she, according to the article, finds to be of particular importance but also neglected in a time that “rewards speed, mobility, and individuality,” she says. The funeral is portrayed as a significant social ritual neglected in today’s individualistic society, and the archbishop is described as the ritual ‘expert,’ correcting the bad behaviour of the Swedes.
When representatives of minority religions’ congregations are interviewed, they are asked to reply on criticism directed to the religious group they represent or as ‘experts’ on ‘their’ religion, but never on grief and funerals in general. One example is the imam replying to the critics directed towards attendees of a Muslim funeral in an article in Expressen (2020), which is discussed below.
There is also an alternative discourse to The CoS’s ‘expert,’ positioning other Christian communities as ‘experts.’ This discourse is articulated in debate articles when representatives from several Christian communities discuss a funeral issue. In dn (2020d), leaders of Lutheran Christian free churches, the Catholic Church in Sweden, the Syrian-Orthodox Church, the CoS, and the Christian Council of Sweden argue for the need to have ‘representatives from religious communities’ in the work of the commission, which is responsible for describing, analyzing, and evaluating how the Swedish society acted during the covid-19 pandemic. According to the authors, “religious communities” know people’s existential needs and are, therefore, crucial in the analytical work of the pandemic. As only Christian communities are represented in the article, “religious communities” are synonymous with Christian communities, placing them in a hegemonic position.
The Normative Church of Sweden Funeral
Even though around one in three deceased in Sweden nowadays either are buried with a funeral service outside the CoS or do not have a registered funeral service, the funeral within the majority church is normative in the newspaper reporting during the pandemic. Other funerals are either positioned as ‘different’ or sometimes as ‘problematic.’ The media logic of CoS’ funeral as the norm often becomes visible in photos in articles, where churches and chapels dominate. Even though the text might not mention funerals within the CoS, images of chapels with religious symbols or priests leading funerals in churches are prevalent. One example is an editorial article in dn (2020e) about problems with being unable to have funerals in person. The text does not mention religious affiliation, but the photo in the article portrays a digital camera filming a priest standing behind a coffin with flowers.
Churches as funeral rooms are also visible in headings, such as “Grieving Malmö family sends the church guests home” (Sydsvenskan, 2020a). Moreover, the need for a funeral, preferably in-person, is emphasized regularly in the same setting. When mourners are interviewed, the funeral chapel is often the stage where the story is told. The articles are framed by a discourse of the ‘good funeral,’ a funeral with physically present mourners performed in a church, according to the deceased’s will and in honour of the dead (see further in Jarnkvist, 2023). However, the articles do not describe or discuss Lutheran Christian funeral traditions.
The ‘Other’ Funeral Worker
Only one of all the articles focusing on religion as an institution represents another religious institution than the Church of Sweden. The article is a mix of a feature and a personal portrayal of Anna Nachman, responsible for the death service at the Jewish congregation in Stockholm (dn 2020f). Under the heading “She has constant readiness to deal with death,” the reader learns about Nachman’s busy working days – and nights. According to the text, Nachman is always on duty, yet, she does not complain. “It does not matter to Anna that she is constantly on duty. (…) The only thing that is a bit tricky is planning holidays,” the text says (dn, 2020f).
Even though the heading and the entry focus on Nachman’s work, the reader gets almost as much information about her family life as her working life. Three of the six images in the feature portray Nachman’s family life. The article describes the big gatherings with family and friends and the religious practices as self-evident parts of Nachman’s life. Instead of writing about Nachman as a Swede, her migration background is highlighted, mentioning that her parents moved to Sweden from Poland and that Anna Nachman did not learn Swedish until she was five years old, positioning Nachman, and the Jewish religion as the ‘other’, something exotic and different from the majority population in the country (dn, 2020f). Othering is the process by which dominant groups, characterized by group size or group power (i.e., social status), define subordinate groups in a reductionist way, assigning problematic and mediocre characteristics to them (Yang, 2010). In the funeral articles, othering results from the media’s logic of placing Lutheran Christianity in a normative position.
In the article, religion intersects with gender and ethnicity. Connections are drawn to the Holocaust and the deaths of many Holocaust survivors caused by the pandemic. The feature on Nachman’s working life is a narrative of a self-sacrificing, hard-working mother with a migration background who carries the history of a whole people on her shoulders (dn, 2020f).
Religious Groups
When religious groups are portrayed or discussed in the newspapers, the majority group, members of the CoS, are invisible. Instead, other religious groups are focused on and mainly positioned as the ‘other.’ Minority positions are taken by ‘representatives’ of particular religious (and ethnic) groups, presenting an alternative narrative. In the discourses, religion intersects with ethnicity.
The ‘Others’
Police have been forced to intervene several times because there are too many participants at Muslim funerals in Malmö. The cemetery administration has had to deploy guards. – Our protection agents have threatened to stop burials because of the risk of infection, says the cemetery director Sven-Erik Perlman Aspeklev. (Expressen, 2020)
In the entry, the cemetery director, a representative of the CoS, is positioned as a responsible person, while the participants of the Muslim funerals are described as irresponsible. Alarming and conflicting language is used, with words like “forced” and “threatened” (Expressen, 2020). Later in the article, an imam, Samir Muric, whose face is in a small photo, is interviewed about the crowded funerals. He talks about broken regulations as a bigger problem in society. He says it is a double standard to point out Muslims as the ones breaking the rules when also people from the government do, referring to politicians who have been in the media for shopping despite restrictions (Expressen, 2020). Anyhow, framed by the article’s narrative of conflict, his response is rather an excuse than an actual critique. The situation resembles reports of conflict when Islam is discussed in the media (Figenschou et al., 2015). In this case, the Muslims were portrayed as the perpetrators and the Lutheran Christians as victims. The portrayal of Muslims as irresponsible or perpetrators is not new in the Swedish news media. Previous research reveals that religious diversity has recently become more visible in Swedish newspapers, where Islam is often seen as ‘problematic’ (Lövheim, 2019).
Due to how many deaths were caused by the disease, the Swedish government decided how many participants were allowed at funerals during different pandemic periods. At the end of May 2020, when dn (2020g) interviewed the administrative manager at the cemetery administration in Stockholm about funeral work, 50 participants were allowed at funerals.
At Swedish and Christian funerals, the average is only 20 people. On the other hand, today, you cannot have the large funeral processions that several faiths in other cultures enjoin, sometimes with well over a hundred participants. However, you can later have a more prominent memorial, [name] says. (dn 2020g)
In the quotation, different religious and ethnic groups are positioned in relation to each other. The particular groups “Swedish” and “Christian” (perhaps considered one group in an intersection) are positioned in opposition to the blurred grouping of “several faiths in other cultures.” Even if intentional or not, the blurring of the second grouping makes them ‘the others’, a diffuse group of people of ‘other’ faiths and cultures, resulting in the message that ‘they’ do not belong to ‘the Swedish culture.’
There are also examples of articles framing religion as ‘different’ while emphasizing changes, making the religion closer to what is considered normative values in Sweden. An article in SvD (2020a) reports the many deaths of “Holocaust survivors” in a Jewish elderly home. The expression “Holocaust survivors” signals the importance of these people and the danger of the disease, as it caused the death of many of those who even survived the Holocaust. The article underlines that the Jewish elderly home and congregation followed the pandemic restrictions, but the infection had been too tough to conquer. However, a big part of the article is about the “thousand-year-old traditions and religious rules” broken or changed because of the pandemic restrictions (SvD, 2020a). The situation is described as a development and progress of the Jewish religion. Anna Nachman, who works at the Jewish congregation, is interviewed, mentioning, for example, the change of rules regulating women. “Who would have guessed that the most orthodox Jews would lead the development,” she says (SvD, 2020a). In the article, values of gender equality and secularity are emphasized, and the pandemic, which at first was portrayed as a big crisis, is suddenly described as something good for the Jews, as it, according to the article, makes the religion more in line with values cherished in today’s Swedish society.
The Minority Position
The disruption of rites has also been palpable for the Christian minority I belong to, Assyrians (some call themselves Syrians), who have roots in the Middle East. Partly because a disproportionate number of people in the group have died of covid-19, partly because one usually has funerals with hundreds of mourners. (Sydsvenskan, 2020b)
In the quotation, Chukri talks about the religious affiliation, the group’s name(s), geographical background, and practice of big funerals – basic knowledge, described to non-informed readers.
Well-educated and quite famous people in Sweden primarily take the minority position. In an article by the Assyrian/Syrian Nori Kinu, researchers and medical doctors are quoted, underlining the ideas of the religious representative (SvD 2020b). When the gastronome Edward Blom, well-known to many in Sweden, is interviewed in SvD (2021a) about the live-streamed funeral of a close friend of his, he says: “(…) We, believing Catholics, have a devotion to relics and see that there is a connection between the eternal soul and the dead body” (SvD 2021a). Blom argues it is especially tough for him not to attend an in-person funeral as a “believing Catholic.” Religious ideas legitimize the in-person funeral’s importance and function.
The (Non-)religious Individual
Only one of the 30 analysed newspaper articles focuses on religious individuals, or, rather, what is described as a ‘non-religious’ individual. The article is framed by the discourse of the ‘responsible’ mourner. In the discourses, religion intersects with ethnicity and gender, and secular values are normative.
The ‘Responsible’ Mourner
We prioritize those who live before traditions and reduce the risk that someone could become infected. Cremation was our best decision, and the family is united. (Aftonbladet, 2020c)
The newspaper positions Spragno as a responsible and rational mourner, reducing the risks of spreading the infection by breaking the Muslim tradition and cremating the dead body. The positioning is done within an understanding of secularity as a norm, emphasizing the break with Muslim traditions. If the family had chosen to hold on to the Muslim tradition and not let the body be cremated, they would probably have been portrayed as irresponsible, as they would have to break with the regulations. It is not mentioned that the family had no choice but to cremate the body if they wanted a physical funeral, as a dead body in a coffin must be buried within one month, according to the law. One can wait a year for the funeral if the body is cremated. As Spragno and her brother live in the USA, they could not get to Sweden within a month of the death of their father.
The framing of Spragno as a ‘responsible mourner’ aligns with secularity and individual responsibility norms. Spragno is also portrayed as having agency, unlike many other Muslim women in the news media. On the other hand, Islam is described as a backwards-looking religion with traditions one needs to break to behave in a ‘responsible’ way. This portrayal of Muslim women in Swedish news media is also known from previous research (Axner, 2015; Lövheim, 2021).
Discussion
This study examines the discursive construction of religion in Swedish newspaper articles on funerals during the covid-19 pandemic. The analysis reveals that the newspaper’s primary focus is on religion as an institution, followed by religious groups, and, finally, individual (non-)religiosity, a pattern known from previous research (Taira, 2019).
The CoS dominates the news media reporting on religion during the pandemic. This was expected as the CoS is responsible for the cremation and burial of (almost) all deceased in Sweden. However, framing the community as extraordinary in nearly all areas contributes to a distorted image of Sweden’s religious and ritual landscape, as well as the people living in Sweden. While the CoS as an institution is dominating the reporting, Lutheran Christians are hardly mentioned as a group. Neither is individual Christian religiosity. Instead, the single article focusing on individual religiosity favours ‘non-religious’ values. Taking an institutional perspective on religion, distancing from all forms of individual religiosity seems to be a part of the media logic, even though religion is understood to be a personal matter in Swedish society (c.f. Taira, 2019; Lövheim, 2019). Intentional or not, the news media takes the ‘non-practising Lutheran Christianity’ as its starting point in articles on funerals, death, and grief, while ‘secular’ values are made normative. Religious people, on the other hand, are positioned as ‘the other,’ as a ‘different’ and quite ‘exotic’ element in Swedish society (Jews), if they are not discussed as a ‘problem’ (Muslims). The positioning of Muslims as ‘problematic’ is also recognized in previous research on Swedish news media (Lövheim, 2019).
I want to discuss the idealising of the CoS and the promotion of ‘secular’ values by giving some examples. The idealising of the CoS is uncovered in several ways. In the articles, priests, bishops, cemetery workers, and other CoS representatives are called upon as ‘experts’ on funerals, a pattern well-known from previous research (Lövheim, 2019). However, when representatives of minority religions are interviewed, they are asked to reply to criticism directed to the religious group they represent or as ‘experts’ on ‘their’ religion. However, they are never positioned as ‘experts’ on grief and funerals in general. This might contribute to an understanding of leaders of minority religions as having poorer knowledge or only being relevant to those belonging to their community. The CoS, on the other hand, is favoured. Previous research also indicates that values and preferences in Nordic newspapers somewhat support the Lutheran heritage, and that the dominant churches, such as the CoS, play a significant public role (Taira, 2019).
A vast majority of the analyzed articles were published in 2020, when funerals, to a great extent, are portrayed as a risk, and the regulations are shifting (see further in Jarnkvist, 2023). Many of the articles also relate to risk and regulation. Thereby, religion is framed as something strict, and the ‘inner life’ of religion is placed in shadow. In the articles, representatives of the CoS are positioned as responsible actors, while representatives from other religious communities are often met with scepticism. For example, when the archbishop claims the funeral restrictions were too strict and argues for more people to be able to attend funerals, newspapers position her as a responsible citizen standing up for all mourners. However, when Muslims act, and too many attend Muslim funerals, they are portrayed as criminals. The act is considered religious, and an imam is asked to defend their action in the media. As Giritli Nygren et al. (2019) stressed, the socio-spatial-temporal context determines what is considered a risk and what is seen as acting responsibly. Moreover, the doing of risk intersects with the doing of normative discourses, in this case, the discourse of ‘individual responsibility’, ‘rationality’, and ‘secularity’.
Breaking with the state’s regulations to instead follow rules and traditions considered ‘religious’ is not regarded as acceptable in media. These ideas are also prevalent in other articles. Practising religious traditions is portrayed as something ‘different’ or ‘problematic’ while breaking “ancient religious traditions and rules” is displayed as a sign of responsibility and rationality (breaking Muslim traditions in Aftonbladet (2020c)) or as signs of progression and development (breaking Jewish traditions in SvD (2020a)). When positioning religion as something ‘different’ and ‘backwards-looking,’ the (invisible) ‘normal Swede’ is set as ‘progressive’ and ‘secularised.’ The downplay of minority religions in media is also revealed in previous research in Australia during the covid-19 pandemic (Halafoff et al., 2021) and aligns with how religion is portrayed in Swedish newspapers in general nowadays (Lövheim, 2019).
Many articles are staged in the CoS’s funeral chapels, and the community’s funeral service is taken for granted. Religion intersects with nationality, where the CoS’s funeral service is normative and positioned as the ‘Swedish funeral.’ In contrast, funerals of other religious traditions are regarded as ‘different’ (i.e., Jewish) or ‘problematic’ (Muslim), at least if the mourners do not adhere to the pandemic regulations. Moreover, while ‘religious traditions and rules’ are frequently discussed concerning minority religions’ funeral services, they are hardly mentioned in the CoS’s funeral service. Instead, these funerals are discussed from a psychological and sociological perspective, focusing on the ritual’s function in grief. The situation makes religion invisible when the CoS’s funeral service is focused, and the Swedish society is portrayed as ‘secular.’
However, an alternative narrative from the discourse of minority religions as ‘the other’ is told by representatives of minority religions; in this case, journalists (Christian Assyrian in Sydsvenskan (2020b)) and a famous Swede (Catholic in SvD (2021a)). Moreover, the practice by these individuals of using media for communicating an alternative narrative of religion in public puts these particular minority groups in a dominant position in relation to other religious and ethnic minorities in Swedish society, as they are given a ‘voice.’ The problem is not, as I see it, that these groups are heard and take place in public. Instead, the problem is that religions that do not have representatives in media, journalists, or others, who take the minority position, are left unheard or portrayed as ‘the others’ or ‘different,’ often downplayed by journalists of the majority population. The minority position is seldom considered in previous media research on religion and needs more attention.
Religion is also done in intersection with gender. Men are primarily interviewed in articles on conflicts or regulations regarding funerals during the pandemic. Women are often portrayed as open, warm-hearted people who do everything to make life as good as possible for all people, whether dead or alive. However, there is a difference in the reporting depending on which religion women represent. While features on female professionals in the CoS focus on their work, with images from the church and text about their working life, the feature on the Jewish funeral worker mainly deals with her family life and the ‘different’ Jewish traditions. The situation down-plays the Jewish funeral worker, as she is positioned as a self- sacrificing woman who wants to give her time for her work. In contrast, the female professionals in the CoS are portrayed as hard-working professionals backed up by a staff of other professionals. The position of working life hero is well-known from research on the portrayal of nurses during the pandemic, leading to regulation and normalization of bad working conditions (Mohammad et al., 2021).
In conclusion, the analysis of funeral articles during the covid-19 pandemic indicates that media reporting during the actual time period was largely one-sided and lacked a comprehensive understanding of religion.
These findings align with previous research on religion in Swedish news media (Lövheim, 2019; Axner, 2015). To address this issue, I agree with Mitchell and Afshari (2021) that journalists should strive to increase their religious literacy. This would likely have led to better coverage of funerals and religion during the pandemic. Religious literacy is also a skill journalists need during non-pandemic times. Moreover, journalists must recognize and challenge their own biases regarding gender, ethnicity, and religion to report on religion equitably. My analysis indicates that this is not a problem limited to a few individuals, but rather a systemic issue within media institutions. Therefore, improving religious literacy is essential.
This multimodal cda analysis discovered nuances in media reporting rarely discussed in previous research. The use of intersectionality as an analytical lens underlines unequal power relations between ethnic groups and gender in media reporting on religion, also found in previous research. Further critical studies focusing on certain cases, such as covid-19, are needed to understand the many layers of power in media reporting.
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Appendix 1
